Lawsuit: Six young men claim sex abuse by former ESU VP; cover-up alleged

One current and five former students are suing East Stroudsburg University, claiming a top administrator pursued unwanted sex with them – including genital groping and oral sex – and school officials covered up his alleged crimes. The allegations are detailed in a graphic, 50-page complaint that was filed Friday in Monroe County.

One current and five former students are suing East Stroudsburg University, claiming a top administrator pursued unwanted sex with them – including genital groping and oral sex – and school officials covered up his alleged crimes.

The allegations are detailed in a graphic, 50-page complaint that was filed Friday in Monroe County.

The chief object of the complaint is Isaac Sanders, the ousted executive director of the ESU Foundation and vice president for advancement at the university.

The suit also names as defendants Robert Dillman, ESU’s president; Kenneth Borland, its provost and vice president for academic affairs; Victoria Sanders, associate vice president for diversity and equal opportunity; and the trustees of the university, as well as ESU as an institution.

The six plaintiffs, identified by their initials, allege that Sanders harassed, intimidated and touched them between 2003 and 2008.

“Sanders’ inappropriate and unlawful sexual conduct toward plaintiffs and other young, African American students at ESU was blatant, open and notorious,” the complaint read.

Sanders served as the highest-ranking black official on campus. He and Dillman were close friends, and Sanders parlayed his status at ESU to gain trust and compel silence among his alleged victims, according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs also allege that Sanders cultivated them as sexual partners. They said he asked them if they knew what a metrosexual was, and requested that a group of prospective fraternity pledges answer the following: “If your line brother (one of the people pledging with you) was bitten by a snake on the tip of their (male genital) and the only way to save them was to suck the poison out, would you do it?”

The suit is the latest – and most explosive – bombshell in a scandal first reported in the Pocono Record in June. Since then, multiple investigations have been launched into allegations of sexual and financial misconduct by Sanders, and he was reportedly fired in October.

Read the complete story in Saturday's Pocono Record in print and online.